Cue up the tubers and brassicas.
No, this trend isn’t the latest in musical fusion or the next field show by the marching band.
It is the call of the Central Coast’s yearlong growing season that Cal Poly students and staff are utilizing in their home and community garden plots.
“It’s nice to have fresh food,” said Kyle Cosgrove, a Cal Poly crops science junior and staff member at the Cal Poly Organic Farm. “It keeps me in shape (and) it’s good exercise. I like being outdoors and it’s very rewarding work in the end.”
Cosgrove said he got into gardening about five years ago after taking a plant biology class and has been an avid gardener ever since.
“That got me interested in plant science,” he said “I kind of got into (gardening) after that. I started growing home vegetables and stuff to eat.”
With plots of various sizes peppered throughout the yards on his home, Cosgrove has managed to create about 300 square feet of gardening space that is dedicated to growing seasonal vegetables.
“I just find space wherever, around my house, where I can do plots,” Cosgrove said. “One plot is only 4 feet by 4 feet, but you know, another one in the back is 10 by 10. I also garden at a community garden where they give you plots for like a year and it’s like 10 by 16 feet. I just find that where there’s space you can grow something in the ground.”
For students who aren’t in the position to do gardening from home, community gardens provide an excellent access to land for students.
Community gardens in San Luis Obispo are handled by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and can be leased for $24 a year.
Because of the temperate climate in San Luis Obispo County, growing vegetables is realistic all year long.
Cosgrove said that his summer vegetables include “tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, melons, all the summer crops,” and in the winter, spinach, lettuce, carrots, chard, beets, arugula and cilantro to name a few. He tries to use them as much as possible in his home cooking.
“Lettuce on the sandwiches, cilantro in rice or chicken, carrots baked or boiled,” Cosgrove said.
While being able to use food that is steps away from the kitchen seems to be a common benefit to home gardening, some use the experience as learning tool as well.
Cal Poly computer science lecturer Julie Workman, 34, recalls when her interest in gardening piqued.
“Way back in Creston when I was living out there, we had a space out in front begging for flowers so I started and lots of mistakes later, I got some stuff to actually grow,” Workman said.
Workman admits that her gardening talents aren’t quite up to those of a master gardener but insists that the activity is something she continues to enjoy.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “It’s fun to be outside, it’s fun to eat something you’ve grown and it tastes better.”
Her current setup in the backyard of her San Luis Obispo home features broccoli, lettuce, artichokes and includes four to five raised beds with summer vegetables tomatoes, peppers and peas.
Despite her three tomato plants sagging from the load of about 15-25 ripening fruits, Workman said that she doesn’t see gardening as something that works to an economic benefit.
“I probably lose money in general,” she said. “I put in broccoli and never got anything. The peas went off though. Every single day we could come out here and get a whole bowl-full, so that was economically beneficial. The tomatoes and the peas yes but everything else, no.”
Workman uses gardening as an educational tool for her 5-year-old daughter, Alex.
“She loves to garden,” Workman said. “She always wants to go to Farm Supply with me and pick out the seeds.”
Workman said that the experience has been good in teaching her daughter the process that takes place from seed to harvest — adding that Alex is avid about remembering to water.
“She loves vegetables,” Workman said. “She’ll come out here and pick the peas and just eat them raw. It’s fun to see her get into it … and it gets her outside and away from the TV.”
Techniques in gardening vary in terms of care.
Cosgrove said that he tries take a more holistic approach with regards to feeding and soil health.
“I don’t use synthetic fertilizers and I don’t use pesticides so I guess you could call it organic (but) it’s not certified,” he said.
He prefers the non-synthetic style because he believes the organic-style focuses more on soil building and plot health.
“You never know sometimes with the synthetic stuff,” he said. “I’m not against it, I just would rather be safe that sorry.”
Some of the organic methods include mulching and using natural fertilizers such as blood meal and bone meal.
Blood meal works to aid in adding nitrogen to the soil, which is key for the leafy green growth. Bone meal, which helps to incorporate phosphorus into the soil, is a necessary element for the production of blooms and healthy root growth.
Workman has made the shift to organic fertilizers in her more recent years gardening years after trying the synthetic blends.
“When I first started I went with what the nursery said would work the best, but the last couple of years I’ve been trying all the organic things,” she said. “They’ve been working just as well, I think.”
Both Cosgrove and Workman summed up gardening as a great recreational activity that provides exercise, the opportunity to be outside and to play a key role in the production of food from home.
“I think it’s great to have a source of food right at home,” Cosgrove said. “I think that you eat healthier when you have that food available to you right out of the front of your door — you tend to want to cook something that you spent three months growing.”